Appeal to the Serbian nation
The appeal to the Serbian nation ( Serbian Апел српском народу Apel srpskom narodu ) from 1941 was the public appeal by 546 prominent ecclesiastical, intellectual and political representatives of Serbia to all so-called “true patriots” to fight against the communist resistance movement and for “order and obedience ”to the Serbian government that collaborated with the German occupiers . The appeal condemned every action against the German occupiers and especially every armed action by the people 's liberation movement .
As a visible distancing of the Serbian bourgeoisie , the appeal was an important success for the German occupying power to stabilize the situation in Serbia, which was gripped by an uprising movement that was regarded as communist.
As a consequence, a few days after the appeal was published, a new Serbian so-called “government of national rescue” was established, which collaborated with the German occupiers. At the urging of well-known Serbian personalities, General Milan Nedić took over the office of Prime Minister .
background
After the Balkan campaign of the German Wehrmacht and the defeat of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia , Serbia was under German military administration . Above all, the Communist Party under Josip Broz Tito resisted the German occupation and carried out attacks, which the occupying power responded to with the killing of civilians. The appeal was an attempt to convince the Serbian population of the futility and danger of resisting the German occupation and to encourage them to collaborate.
text
The text of the appeal was prepared by the interim Serbian collaboration government and important Serbian personalities were invited to sign. Those who did not sign were viewed and treated as opponents of the regime. The diplomat and writer Ivo Andrić , the writer Isidora Sekulić , the professors Bogdan Popović Nikola Vulić and Miloš Đurić and the painter Sreten Stojanović refused to sign the appeal.
The text with the 546 names of the signatories was published on August 13 and 14, 1941 in the Belgrade newspaper Novo vreme (New Time).
Signatory
The signatories of the appeal included three bishops and four archimandrites of the Serbian Orthodox Church , 81 professors from the University of Belgrade including the rector , former and later members of the government, army generals, industrialists, freelancers and others.
Individual evidence
- ^ Klaus Schmider : Partisan War in Yugoslavia 1941–1944 . Mittler, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-8132-0794-3 , p. 59 .
- ↑ Svetlana Brajtigam-Gensicke: The meaning of historical memory in societies in transition using the example of young people from Serbia . Waxmann Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8309-7746-9 , pp. 74 f ., see also footnote 80 .
- ^ Vanita Singh Mukerji: Ivo Andrić: A Critical Biography . McFarland, Jefferson NC 1990, pp. 41, 172 .
- ↑ Apel srpskom narodu [Appeal to the Serbian Nation] . In: Novo vreme . Belgrade August 13, 1941, p. 1, 3 . and Nastavak liste potpisnika Apela srpskom narodu [continuation of the list of signatories of the appeal to the Serbian nation] . In: Novo vreme . Belgrade August 14, 1941, p. 3 .
- ↑ List of all signatories printed in Philip J. Cohen: Serbia's Secret War: Propaganda and the Deceit of History (= Eastern European studies . No. 2 ). 4th edition. Texas A&M University Press, 1999, pp. 137-152 .